


Shaky Hands

by Sagartolen



Series: Whumptober2019 collection [3]
Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen, Ghost Lewis (Mystery Skulls Animated), Hellbent (Mystery Skulls Animated), Hellbent gone wrong, Hurt No Comfort, Violence, Whumptober 2019, dead for real Arthur, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:47:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27185417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sagartolen/pseuds/Sagartolen
Summary: Those who desire revenge should dig two graves..(Reposting of Whumptober2019 ficlets originally written for Tumblr.)
Series: Whumptober2019 collection [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1788607
Kudos: 36





	Shaky Hands

**Author's Note:**

> You can find my full list of Whumptober2019 stuff [here](https://pi-cat000.tumblr.com/post/188709822487/its-almost-halloween)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: 'Shaky hands,' 'Delirium' and "Stab-wound"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read the tumblr verson in the following posts found: [here](https://pi-cat000.tumblr.com/post/188061751147/whumptober-no1-shaky-hands) and [here](https://pi-cat000.tumblr.com/post/188232013427/whumptober-no8-stab-wound)

**(ARTHUR)**

“Holy shit…oh god”

Arthur grimaces, vision blurry, squinting towards the vaguely Vivi shaped outline bending over him.

“I…” And he can’t finish the sentence because blood has filled up his throat, choking off the last of his oxygen. He can’t breathe. His vision darkens.

He reaches up, and his hand is shaking. Vivi takes it, and he is shaking so badly that it vibrates her whole arm. He wants to apologise, but this is all he can manage in the way of communication. Arthur hopes she understands.

It’s too bad he never got to see her reunite with Lewis. He thinks that maybe that ship has sailed. Vivi’s not going to forgive Lewis for killing him…It makes him sad. Sadder than the idea of his death at any rate. Maybe, it’s just the lack of oxygen finally catching up to him.

“Arthur…” Is the last thing he hears. His vision begins to fade, the sound disappears. His sense of touch eventually fades as well.

.

.

.

**(VIVI)**

Vivi grasps Arthur’s hand tight. It’s not tight enough to stop the shaking though. The hole in his chest oozes blood onto the dusty metal floor of the truck trailer. She can’t fix this. This isn’t just an arm that she can tie off while she frantically drives them both to hospital.

Arthur tries to speak, but the words are garbled.

“Arthur…shhh…It’s okay.” His eyes become unfocused. The shaking stops. And Vivi is alone. 

.

.

.

.

Leaves crunch loudly underfoot, scaring a small bird from its perch in a nearby tree. It shoots up into the air, wings beating frantically as it attempts to escape the perceived threat. Vivi hesitates, swaying unsteadily, watching its progress. The movement is so quick that she almost slices the creature in half. Fortunately, she holds the action, pausing to track the bird’s progress. Overhead, the moon shines a pale silver, reflecting on its wings. It disappears back into the trees. The moment of stillness passes and Vivi, tightening her grip on her katana, continues forward.

She can’t stop for too lon _g. Not now._ Vivi must keep moving. Endless days and nights have disappeared, consumed in her relentlessly hunt for closure. Sleep. Food. Water. _When is the last time she had had any of it?_ Vivi can’t remember. The closer she draws to her target the less such worldly needs seem to matter. 

One foot in front of the other, sword dragging a grove along the forest floor, Vivi walks. Her mind and logical thought are gone, ravaged by an ever-present haze nothing. Even grief and rage, so potent in the beginning, are faint, becoming nort but background noise.

_Nothing mattered except reaching the end goal._

In the moonlight, the silver katana glitters a pale ethereal blue, lighting her way through the forests. Sometimes, Vivi sees the shape of a large, many-tailed fox stalking her shadow, clearing her path of unwanted distractions. In her delirium, it matters not what is cut down in her quest, only that she continues forward.

Occasionally, the fox, - i _ts name is ‘Mystery,’ a far off part of her mind informs_ \- would beg her to stop. _But she can’t stop._

.

.

**/This path of revenge will consume you. These powers are dangerous in the hands of the untrained./**

“And whose fault it that!”

**/Please reconsider./**

“That creature killed Arthur. I don’t care who it was or what past relationship we had. That bastard killed Arthur, and it is going to pay.”

.

.

**/It has been two days. Put the sword down. Rest. Please. There is no need to push yourself so hard./**

“Get out on my way Mystery.”

.

.

**/You must eat. Continue like this, and there will be no going back./**

“I know.”

.

.

.

.

**(MYSTERY)**

It is a cold, moonless night when Vivi Yukino catches the wraith of Lewis Pepper. The confrontation is set in a grassy clearing amid a pine-filled forest. Despite the lack of natural lighting, both combatants’ glow bright enough that it illuminates the ground around them. Lewis’s ghost fire burns a dull purple, pale when compared to Vivi’s piercing ethereal blue. In the trees, slinking amongst the shadows, Mystery circles. His paws are soundless of the forest floor, and his breath mists. Vivi’s spiritual aura blankets the entire area, generating an unnatural chill. 

Mystery would not call this a fight. Lewis, for all the gusto he had displayed when chasing after Arthur, barely protests when Vivi slices at him. _He has given up_. Mystery can see how the ghost’s vibrant flames dim more by the second, flickering down to embers. If anything, Lewis’s weaker, ghost companions seam more upset, throwing themselves at Vivi in his defence. Vivi, expression blank, channelling several generations worth of dormant spiritual power, cuts them down with ease.

Not for the first time Mystery curses the oath binding him to the words of the Yukino line. He longs to interfere and stop this battle. Unfortunately, now Vivi is harnessing her bloodlines dominant power, Mystery feels its full weight more than ever. Etherial ice freezes his limbs, holding him in place, forcing him to watch and circle at a distance.

Across the clearing Lewis falls to his knees, too exhausted to continue dodging. He is not even trying to reason with Vivi like he had during their first confrontation. Mystery shivers and his fur ripples. He fights against the cold with all his will. If he does not intervene and stop this fight, Vivi will dispatch Lewis like she had all the other supernatural creature unfortunate enough to cross her path these last few days. _No. He can’t simply watch._ He will not watch his youngest charge destroys herself on this ill-fated quest to avenge Arthur. _He must try._

It is an immense struggle, but he manages to leap between Vivi and Lewis, forcing her to hold her finishing blow. His tails dance behind him, cracking the ice collecting in his fur.

**/Please. You have won this fight. You can stop now. /**

Behind him, kneeling on the ground, fire snuffed out, Lewis silently watches. With all his smaller ghost companions gone, there is nothing to stop Vivi.

“Move,” Vivi’s voice, once so full of energy, is flat. The air around her is bitter cold, spiritual power bleeding and manifesting as a supernatural frost. Mystery can see how it gathers along her arms, condensing into _her_ sword.

The order causes him to flinch and the cold bites into him, forcing his head and tails down in a gesture of submission. 

**/Arthur is gone. This serves no purpose. He has clearly surrendered./**

“Move. Now.”

When she speaks, Mystery hears the echo of _her_ … Almost without thinking, he steps to the side. His momentary falter costs him dearly. Vivi, not even a second glance, lunges, jabbing in one quick movement.

**/No!/**

Mystery turns, but it is too late. Vivi stabs into Lewis’s ghostly anchor, piercing it at its centre. Immediately, it cracks, splitting and Lewis flickers, groaning in pain. It is the first sound he has made during this whole exchange. A flash of purple energy pulses out from the stab wound, bleeding into the air, mixing with the cold. Vivi freezes, blue eyes flickering to purple then back again to blue. And, like someone has cut the strings to a puppet, she collapses. Mystery catches her when she slumps forward. _It really is the least he can do._

Her sword dissipates, disintegrating into snowflakes to be blown away on the gentle night breeze. With Vivi unconscious, the area begins to warm to a more natural temperature. Ice melts into small rivers, dampening his fur.

 **/I am sorry. The damage is too much. /** Is all Mystery can offer to Lewis who wavers from where he is still kneeling. The stab wound in his chest lengthens, cracking his anchor further.

“It..s…Ok…ay…” Lewis’s eyes dim, turning grey, his whole form flaking into ash. The soft breeze blows that away too, leaving Mystery alone in that silent clearing with only Vivi and his own failure for company.

Guilt, he thinks, is an odd sensation. It is nothing like the duty-bound resignation he is accustomed to feeling or the sense that he has fulfilled his role as a guardian to the best of his abilities and that any further misfortune is surely the will of external powers. Mystery has seen tragedy befall the Yukino family before now. The wheel of fate turned. Humans came and went like seasons. Fleeting. Impermanent.

_Why is this failure different? Why does his chest hurt like he were the one stabbed?_

Mystery bends to pick Vivi up, holding her like a pup before nudging her onto his back. Without a supernatural power to keep her going, Vivi would need human medicine and a hospital to recover. She had pushed her body long past its breaking point. Carefully, Mystery picks his way out of the clearing and back through the forest.


End file.
